Mod of the Month - November 2007

Airbrushed BioShock

Ahhh, BioShock. It's a game that's captured our hearts and minds, and stolen the soul of our games reviewer. We kind of miss Joe, speaking of. Oh, he's still around, just...not the same Joe that he used to be.

Anyhow, there's no doubt that BioShock is one hell of a game, as well as a fantastic piece of inspiration. It practically oozes quality visuals and defining imagery, so it's no surprise to see a mod inspired by it. What is a surprise is to see one with quite this much talent.

R B Customs is a guy who's lurked on our forums for a while, with some absolutely insane airbrushing skills. I mean, there's good, and then there's this good. He's managed to get a hold of a windowed Silverstone TJ-07 (my favourite case, as we all know) - but what he's done with it is simply amazing.

The inside is to be rust-painted, which starts with an etching primer on the shiny original interior. This is followed up by a coat of silver paint, to bring it back to a slightly oxidised aluminium look. Why two steps just to make it look almost like the first? Well, good airbrushing requires great adhesion to prevent drips and runs - working with an unprimed surface is just asking for a bad paint job.

The project continues with black spots that will look like pitting as the rust is applied. Then it's layers of orange, green, and yellow to create the final effects. Topped off with some white highlights, it looks like bubbled up, rusted steel - just the look that he was going for.

The Big Daddy and Little Sister that will live on one side panel are given life as very dark lines to start with. This way, they can be corrected easily, while still laying down a base visual to work from. Then, the white is applied, which is not only for the colour white but also to help create highlights in brighter sections of the picture when the colours are put down. The image is created mostly freehand, as masking creates sharp lines and edges that would take away from the feathered look.

The case is filled with little extras, though above are only two of them. The "From the desk of" paper is done on the top, directly above the CD drives, after the curve of the case. The Rapture logo is on the interior HDD cage, and actually has the words sprayed on in a prismatic, reflective paint. When you look head-on, you'll see them clear as day... but from an angle like this, they disappear. The same technique is also used elsewhere.

The game's logo is applied as its white base coat here, below the drive bays and switches. Then, it's time to start adding the colour - you can see the nearly complete Big Daddy panel here, as well as the front of the case. The top is also done with a water drop effect.

Of course, this is nowhere near all that there is to see. Everything, and I mean everything, is given a treatment - so much that I've not even bothered to show you one whole panel, because frankly ten pictures can't really show off all the steps and details. Instead, I'm going to point you back to his worklog - because if you haven't seen this, you owe it to yourself to do so. Then again, it just might be making another round on the front page anyway...

In the meantime, if the airbrushed goodness of this case sends you to rapture, then make sure to vote for Airbrushed BioShock as the Mod of the Month for November!